Biography
Idiot Prayer were a Dunedin three-piece active from March 2010 to January 2012, playing forty-five shows before disbanding — and releasing recordings of every single one on Bandcamp for free. The trio formed in December 2009 through a connection to Karen McLean (bassist of Onanon), who introduced the three members to each other. David Ager described the encounter as “a three-way blind date that ended in an orgy of noise.” Their first gig was a pint night at Re:Fuel on 3 March 2010. The band documented this show and every subsequent one, releasing the recordings via Bandcamp as Show #01 through Show #45 — a systematic archive of their entire live output, free to download.
Idiot Prayer’s music drew on the noise rock and post-rock lineage of Dunedin: High Dependency Unit and Bailterspace were early reference points, alongside Shellac, Jesus Lizard, and Straitjacket Fits. NZ Herald reviewer Sam Valentine described the trio’s evolution from “embryonic HDU/Bailterspace style instrumentals to hypnotic math-minded rock.” Rip It Up’s Martyn Pepperell wrote of them: “As abrasively toned as the bone cutting chill of mid-winter Dunedin, South Island trio Idiot Prayer fashion an elastically pictorial mixture of conventionally structured post rock and free form improv noise arrangements.” Tim Smith on writing: “Find cool riff. Everyone join cool riff. Demolish cool riff. Lyrics come after.”
Their sole studio recording, the Falconer EP (2011), was released on CD and download via MUZAI Records and on vinyl via Dunedin’s Monkey Killer Records — a vinyl-only imprint whose roster also included Mountaineater and Operation Rolling Thunder, whose Rob Falconer engineered the EP (and gave it its name). The sessions took place at the University of Otago’s Albany Street Studios. Drummer Sam Brookland described their compositional method as “moving from A to B and back to A… through cues rather than a count of bars” — what he called “living compositions.” The band played their forty-fifth and final show on 21 January 2012 at XII Below in Dunedin, documented as Show #45: Idiot Prayer Say Goodbye.
A brief reunion followed in July 2015 at the Crown Hotel, Dunedin, after an almost three-year hiatus. Brookland attributed the reunion simply to the fact that “we all like each other, for starters. We’re friends outside of the band. Making a horrible racket is a good way for us to all catch up.” No further activity has been documented since. David Ager had previously played in Dunedin bands Monkey Knife Fight and Dragonfly.
We all like each other, for starters. We’re friends outside of the band. Making a horrible racket is a good way for us to all catch up.
Sam Brookland, Otago Daily Times, 2015
Members
- David Ager (bass) — Monkey Knife Fight, Dragonfly
- Sam Brookland (drums) — The Pukes, Gestalt Switch
- Tim Smith (vocals/guitar) — Carriage H, Chihuahua
Discography
- Falconer EP (2011, MUZAI Records / Monkey Killer Records)